How do you update your Group Policy ADMX files?

Every now and then Microsoft releases a new operating system and if you are in a domain environment you should be interested in manage your new (and old) computer via Group Polices. To manage your computer you need either the target operating system version (or later) with RSAT (Remote Server Administrative Tools) or equivalent server operating system to be able to see and configure all features. You also need updated Group Policy settings files, Group Policy Administrative Templates or simply updated ADMX files for the new operating system. You can get these ADMX files in different ways either download them from Microsoft Download pages: Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 or in the folder “%WinDir%\PolicyDefinitions” from the operating system you want to manage, make sure it is fully updated with all service packs, patches etc.

If you install RSAT on the target computer and manage Group Policies from there you are fine, no need to change any thing, but if you want to manage the Group Policies from a server that are not the latest and maybe not the same templates, you need to do one of two things.

Update “%WinDir%\PolicyDefinitions” with the latest templates (replace the existing). Note! The downside of doing this is if you have more than one server you are managing group policies from you need to update all of them

If you have trouble with permissions you could update the local Sysvol folder on a Domain controller: %WinDir%\SYSVOL\sysvol\[<Domain>\Policies. (You may need to modify the permissions, since default is only SYSTEM has full control)

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Published by Mattias Fors

Mattias working as a technical architect for Advania. Mainly working in the areas of Client Deployment and Management including Configuration Manager, Intune, Office 365, Azure, Windows Server and Client. I have been devoted to enterprise client infrastructure for many years now.
I run the blog https://deploywindows.com and https://crugse.wordpress.com
View all posts by Mattias Fors

Hi Thomas, no you are not forced to set all the settings again when you change the ADMX/Policy templates files. These are only files for all available settings, the settings are stored in other places.
Eventually the setting you have set have been moved, therefor you may see Not Configured. Check a few more settings and you will see they are all there.
Good luck

I replaced an ADMX file with a newer one (same name, just newer version), and everything added smoothly. The settings tab says the settings are there, but when I look in the new admin template with “Edit”, the settings say “not configured”. Do I have to go back through every policy that was using that template, and reapply the settings?